Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Well 2011 is almost here... that's the year Baby Z will be born!  Not too much longer now...

Justin & Kacie went over the river and through the woods to Aunt Cathy's house near Jackson, MN for the holidays.  They have much more snow than we do in Mitchell... but that is changing as we speak with the snow storm coming through to bring in the New Year! 
 

On the way to Aunt Cathy's house...

Lots of deer in the area.

 

Aunt Cathy's Christmas tree... with all the presents underneath!

Justin, Kacie & even Baby Z got lots of great presents!  Kacie enjoyed a nice 3 days off for the holiday weekend, and Justin is still enjoying his winter break from school... school resumes on the 3rd.  On his break, Justin has been relaxing some, hunting with his brother, doing stuff around the house, and has started to make a toy box for Baby Z.

The doctor appointment yesterday went well.  Baby's heartbeat was around 130, blood pressure looked good, and both mom and baby continue to gain weight!  Next appointment is Jan 13, and after that the appointments continue every Thursday at 1 week intervals until the big day!  The new due date is Feb 11, 2011... maybe it will be on Kacie's birthday!

Every Tues night in January, Kacie & Justin will be attending some sort of expecting parent or childbirth class held at the Avera Queen of Peace Hospital Community Room -- that's the hospital Baby Z will be born at.  Kacie may also sign up for an infant and child CPR class sometime in January.

Here's Kacie & Baby Z at Week 33.

Tomorrow, New Years Eve, may be an interesting day with the weather ... Cabela's closed early at 6pm today, and it's supposed to be worse yet tomorrow with more snow and wind!  We were planning a trip to Canby for the weekend to see family, but doesn't look like that will be happening now with the nasty weather.  We'll choose to stay safe and warm indoors instead.

What have they been up to?

Kacie, Justin and Baby Z have been doing well and keeping busy!

Justin started Junior High wrestling practice on Nov 17th, and their first meet was yesterday evening in Mitchell... so it's been hard for him to squeeze in any more deer hunting.  He may go with some teacher friends to bow hunt near Chamberlain tomorrow though. 

Kacie has been staying busy at work with lots of holiday events at the store lately.  She has an Ice Fishing Classic weekend to organize this weekend (so unfortunately will miss the Cleveland Christmas!), and she'll take pictures of kids with Santa the next 2 weekends in a row!  She's also planning for a "Santa's Workshop" for kids at the store which will include fun things like holiday crafts, writing letters to Santa, story time, cookie decorating, etc.  And she's starting to plan for when she'll be on leave from work and will have to train in a few people at the store how to take over her duties while she's out... she's planning for taking the full 12 weeks that the state of SD offers for maternity leave.

Kacie and Baby Z are at 30 weeks right now -- only 10 or so more to go!  Hard to believe.  Next appointment is Dec 9th.  So far so good.  She'll sign up for expecting parent and childbirth classes that will take place in January 2011.  Baby Z has still been fairly active and tends to get the hiccups about twice a day or so!  Apparently hiccups mean that the baby is healthy and working to develop her lungs.

We missed seeing any family on actual Thanksgiving day (Kacie had to wake up at 3am to work for Black Friday!), so we went to see family in Canby on the weekend instead.  Here are a few pictures from Vivian's house.  It was fun, but the time always goes by too fast ... and it's hard to get around to see everyone before we leave!  We imagine it may be a little harder yet once Baby Z arrives!

 

 Earlier last week, Kacie took part in the "Parade of Lights" for work on a cold Monday night -- Nov 22.

Kacie, Shannon & Andrew braved the cold to ride the float!

Parade theme was "Christmas Around the World" -- Cabela's float theme was "Hawaiian Christmas".